11.07.2011

Influxes from the outside world

Naturally the situation Detroit is in attracts [media] attention from outside. The former branding of the city as a ruin town, as the living example of the death of the American dream seems to be outdated. So many people here worked so hard to maintain this city, so many people did their best to have some kind of society working, it had to pay off. Whereas Detroit was leading all the wrong lists in many of the USA media, ow the tide is changing. From a town in which one would not even be found death, now the stigma on Detroit is one of 'can do'. From disaster city Detroit turned into 'city of opportunities'. A link to provide you with further insight on that idea:- Is Detroit the new Brooklyn?

Many of the outsiders coming into town at this moment are not wholly trusted by the Detroiters i have been meeting these weeks. As opposed to the white flight from the 50ies, and more recent, now power and money don't leave town, but flow in. That causes Detroiters who stayed here to wonder on the willingness of those people to contribute to non fordist dream of Detroit's future. Are businesses and investment bankers not trying to revive the old system which so deeply hurt this town? Are they here for profits only, rather than for the sake of the community? As some one put it last week: "The new incomers have access to two things most people here don't have: resources and out of town networks. Kids who grew up here during last decades are than again losers - as they don't have these two assets. Who is going to guarantee me the investers will not move somewhere else sometime soon and once again leave us? And in that process having transformed our dream into another nightmare?" Let's see what some of the investers think of that themselves:- Detroit's fix-it men in their own words

4 comments:

Ohoy Friso!Nice to read your blogs, seems like you have had a very informative period.I liked the text about Cairo and the outsiders kick starting places.Being an Amsterdam outsider myself, I know the benefits of NOT belonging to a place. I also spent 28 years in Little Örebro, while ALL my friends moved to Stockholm, Gothenburg, London and so on...So I also know that stinging feeling off...shit everybody is leaving. Örebro was never as extreme as Detroit...BUTT, again, getting a LITTLE bit tired of all the outsider , hipster bashing...The Detroit Time Cock competiton in full swing as someone explained to me...the longer you have stayed in Detroit, the bigger your Detroit Time cock! . It does start to smell quite a bit of xenophobia, it is not only the pride of having stayed in Detroit. SOoOooOOoOo...VIVA New York Hipsters and young new comers!!!!

And if someone doesn't have a network outside of Detroit, maybe it is time for that someone to get their lazy ass and get one, lack of money is not the problem, priorities is...I have DIRT poor friends from Brazil with international networks.I have dirt poor friends from East LA with international networks.So come on!!!Heard of internet?

Another problem concerning lack of international networks for Detroitians, is Americans deeply ingrained lack of curiosity towards the rest of the world.The whole world used to come to them, things are changing, you have to start looking outside , maybe even get a passport...Or if that is too much to ask and you don't have access to internet, get a pen pal...hehehehehe!!!!